- Events at ancient and historical sites could soon be hosted in the Metaverse.
- Revenue generated from this new tourism could help owners pay very expensive maintenance.
- This Metaverse tourism could also help with historical storytelling.
Events at ancient and historical sites could soon be hosted in the Metaverse and many say this is the future of tourism.
Individuals who own historical castles or villas, and who have drafted augmented reality blueprints of their properties think that their plans to attract visitors to their properties through the Metaverse might actually work.
Revenue generated from this could also help these owners pay for the very expensive maintenance necessary to keep these historic places going.
These ideas were born during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the tourism industry took a big knock.
Michelle Choi, the founder of 3.0 Labs – a Web3 venture lab – turned to digital opportunities to finance the upkeep of physical paintings by selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs). She plans on doing the same with real-life heritage sites.
Choi launched Non-fungible Castle, an NFT exhibition and auction at Lobkowicz Palace where NFTs were displayed next to 500-year-old paintings. This event raised enough money to fund all the urgent projects at the property.
Prince Heinrich Donatus of the Schaumburg-Lippe family owns Buckeburg Castle. He explained that “we have the sole responsibility to maintain this history working with limited resources, and suddenly resources can be vastly enhanced and crowdsourced”.
This Metaverse tourism could also help with historical storytelling as Donatus explains that “the Metaverse can recreate and preserve that past”. This creates a fantastic teaching opportunity.
Choi added to this when she said “in the Metaverse, we can upload guns and recreate wars for historical teaching purposes”.
As metaverses become new models for the tourism industry, they may also retell or even recreate history in the process.
